We have been working on a feminist research — gathering the experiences of female vendors in Harare. Life is indeed challenging for most of them, but I must say I was totally awed by the number of medical practitioners as vendors due to the lack of job opportunities, they said.
Even the very naming of these women as vendors leaves me feeling uncomfortable. These are women doing what they can to make ends meet and part of that is taking their children to boarding school. An elderly woman, the age of my grandmother was proud to share how she has managed to take some of her grandchildren to boarding school and I gave her all the due respect. However, what broke my heart is the politicisation of the vending space by space barons, who are harassing these women. A woman we spoke to shared her experience and likened her vending experience to that of a woman married to an abusive rich man. She explained that as the wife to this abusive rich man you need his support financially because you cannot cater for yourself, your children and family, but he orders you to stop contact with your relatives. Just like the classical case of selling one’s soul to the devil and it is such a terrifying reality for me. I have more to say but won’t. It is heartrending to see how many have learnt how to abuse the status quo for their personal enrichment in the name of supporting the causes of women. However, it is just not in vending, it is everywhere!
The status quo
Ask any Zimbabwean about their view of state security or the uniformed forces and you will hear interesting stories. I love stimulating conversation.
I admit the current lived realities in Zimbabwe speak to operating and living within a militant system. It is a system that uses power and force as a tool for oppression and abuse. The abuse comes in many forms where those within the system brutally abuse us as citizens using that system.
Yes, it is a good thing to have the traffic police do their job, but they abuse that power sometimes. Jokes have even circulated of how a traffic police officer gets home and sees there is no relish for dinner and simply asks his wife for his “neon arms” so he goes and does his “thing” to make an extra dollar. It may seem funny, but not when one has been a victim of such brutality of abuse of power and office.
Then there are those who know how messed up the status quo is and they abuse it. Two classic cases: my best friend was trailed by someone who claimed he was speaking on his phone as he was driving past State House and they demanded a bribe or he was to face some unspecified action.
Recently, a friend’s uncle was trailed by another car with one uniformed policeman and plain clothed “officers”, who claimed he had gone through a red robot at Parliament sometime that day. They demanded he pay a certain amount of money or disappear, like really? Well yes, criminals are there, but we cannot deny that they are a symptom of a messed up system. The point being that the current state of affairs has left room for abuse and Zimbabweans suffer for such laxity. The women selling wares on the streets and trying to make a living deserve our respect.
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It is thus angering, saddening and frustrating when the laws established during the colonial era become the source of their misery. When the various barons decide to further abuse the women and charge them daily vending rates in the name of whatever political party they hail from. It is abuse of the status quo because these very people have understood that there is room to manipulate the system. There is also a battle raging between prospective house owners and land barons because these land barons have sided with the powers that be to access land and now this land has been deemed “illegal” and homes built are being destroyed.
How one gets to sell land that does not even belong to them in the first place is not only selfish and heartbreaking, but also leaves a lot to be desired of the system.
Where are the authorities when houses are being built from foundation to roof level? This does not happen overnight, so I take that there is abuse of the system at many levels and at the expense of those who have joined co-operatives.
It is the same whether it is the woman selling her wares and is being named a vendor or woman who is part of a co-operative, there has been a serious abuse of the system and now both women are left stranded and struggling.
Zimbabwe is a country with a high literacy level regarded as top three in Africa. It means we are able to comprehend and unpack our lived realities. How then do we explain this participation in such disorder of the system and abuse of systems and personal gains? I assume that education enhances ones quality of life, but alas this is a mirage.
After all how does a system as policed as the one we are operating in, allow a bogus cop to operate at a police station for a whole year without being detected? It means we are sloppy and not even concerned.
This is a desperate call to each one of us to appeal to that aspect of Ubuntu within us so we facilitate a transformation of ours and others lives, one breath at a time.
We can begin to renew and refresh the system if we decide that enough is enough and we need to ensure that the system works to our good and not to our abuse. We cannot continue to watch as we destroy our own country by participating in this decay.
We can stand up today and demand what is rightfully ours. It does not take a donor, a chief, chef or whatever we assume. Our solution is within reach, we can become the difference we want to see. So whether you are a security guard, a child minder, CEO, editor, president, garbage man or whatever they call you, purify the system from your end and we will each begin to see a restoration of order and respect for dignity especially for our women.
No one but you and I can do it so let’s do this!
lGrace Chirenje writes in her personal capacity and loves stimulating conversation. She would be excited to hear from you. Feedback: [email protected], follow her on twitter @graceruvimbo or Facebook: Grace Ruvimbo Chirenje. Chat soon.
